When you walk to the history wing at Bishop Manogue, there’s a classroom on the right with a man who’s been in education for over 30 years, yet he still teaches every day like it’s his first. His name is Mr. Scott Sass. He brings the energy and he makes sure that his class isn’t a normal, boring history class. When you ask him about the key to teaching, he would tell you, “You better make sure it’s fun.” That is something he accomplishes every single day.
Mr. Sass was born in Southern California and moved all over the place throughout his childhood. He lived in the Bay Area, before his family eventually settled down in the Seattle area in Washington. He is a teacher that doesn’t have a degree in education. He is also a history teacher that doesn’t have a degree in history. His degree is actually in PE, with a minor in social studies. He originally wanted to be a coach.
“I was pretty lost in high school,” he told me. “My grades were good, but I only went because I wanted to play sports.” He didn’t know entirely what he wanted to do with his future. Mr. Sass told his dad one day that he wanted to be a bum. His father jokingly answered, “You can’t because you couldn’t get out of the doorways before the cops got you, you don’t like getting up in the morning.”
Sports was the way he wanted to go in his life. It became his purpose, which led to him becoming a PE teacher for an elementary school. He spent six years playing tag, parachute games, and scooter boards. He laughed when he said, “They paid me to play with kids all day. I would have done that forever.” He couldn’t do it forever, however, because the school he was at cut PE. His position was eliminated so he had to make a career choice that related to his minor.
He was assigned to a middle school to teach US history. As a social studies minor, he studied US history, and knew a lot about it, but he never taught it before. To make matters worse, he was only filling in for a teacher who was on maternity leave, which left him even more uncertain about the future. That teacher didn’t return the next year though, which left the job open for Mr. Sass to take. He now had his new career path.
It wasn’t an easy transition, but over time he developed into a great history teacher. It was during this time that he also started coaching middle school sports. He coached JV baseball at Reno High School. He kept his sport passion alive, while also being able to enjoy being a teacher.
‘I knew I wanted to give back to baseball,” Mr. Sass said. “It had given me so much, work ethic, time management, how to lose, how to get along with teammates you don’t like.” The sport gave him so much love, which is where his love for coaching came from. He coached when he was in college during the summers working at a baseball camp, “Even before I started officially coaching, I was already around kids, teaching them the game. I knew I was going to be good at that.”
One of the most impactful things coaching has given Mr. Sass is the relationship he formed in the process. “The guys I coached in my early years are in their 40s now,” he told me. “I run into them at Target or the mall and it’s like no time has passed.” He told me that he still meets up with his former players for lunch.
As mentioned earlier, Mr. Sass is from Washington. He moved to Reno for a very simple reason, the weather was better. “In the Seattle area, it rains all the time. We’d spend hours prepping the field, then 15 minutes before game time it would dump again.” It was terrible being a baseball player and coach in the area. Reno has much clearer skies and was the clear future for Mr. Sass.
At Bishop Manogue, Mr. Sass teaches both freshmen and seniors. He taught at Pine Middle School for over 20 years so when he made the transition to Bishop Manogue teaching freshmen was familiar to him. The seniors on the other hand, were a different story. “Last year, I felt like I was swinging and missing,” he told me. “They weren’t mean, they were just done. Just trying to get out of here.” It is now his second year teaching seniors and he says that this year has felt better.
Mr. Sass has done many great things throughout his life. Whether it’s elementary school PE, coaching JV baseball, or teaching AP Government there is one thing that they all have in common, Mr. Sass being a leader for the children around him. “We forget the impact that we have on kids just by being ourselves.” One day he invited his baseball seniors to read to his elementary school class during reading week and the kids were in admiration of the players. “These little kids didn’t care if they were the backup second baseman or Derek Jeter. They were just in awe.”
When I asked Mr. Sass for some advice for anyone who wants to become a teacher or coach. He told me something so simple, but when thinking about it, it’s great advice for life. “It’s gotta be fun. You can’t grind it for 30 years just waiting to retire. You’ve gotta enjoy it, for your sake and for the students.” He’s taught for three decades and he still gets excited before every class. He genuinely enjoys teaching and that impact is made on his students.
